A very vocal part of the Nintendo community has long asked the company to giveMother 3an official Western release. While it has yet to come to fruition, it seems an official release for this third entry in theEarthboundseries might be closer than ever before thanks to the addition of Game Boy Advance titles in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription service. Although it was not listed among the titles confirmed to be coming the service, there is hope for an English translation sometime in the future.
The announcement ofGame Boy Advance gamescoming to the Expansion Pack tier was great news for a variety of reasons, as it not only gives fans of the handheld a modern way to play, but also offers Nintendo a space to bring over games that never saw a release outside of Japan. A good example of this trend is a Game Boy Advance title featured in the launch line-up on Switch,Kuru Kuru Kururin, which first saw a North American release on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2016. With this precedent set, it’s possible thatMother 3could receive the same treatment in the future.
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Mother 3 Deserves an Official Western Release
Mother 3started life as a sequel to the SNES RPGEarthbound -Mother 2in Japan - being developed for the Nintendo 64. Although this iteration of the game would end up being scrapped, many of its ideas came intoMother 3, which released in Japan in 2006 for the Game Boy Advance. While many assume this game never saw a Western release due to some controversial elements of its story, the poor sales ofEarthboundand a general lack of interest from Western audiences 12 years after its release were also likely factors behindwhyMother 3has never been localized.
However, in the time since its Japanese release, theEarthboundseries has developed somewhat of a cult following, prompting many fans to inquire whether the third installment could ever see an official localization. It’s clear Nintendo is aware there is an audience forMother 3given it released an official localization of the first game in the series on theWii U Virtual Consolein 2015 - calledEarthbound Beginnings. While this was not the entry that many fans hoped for, it still showed Nintendo was willing to localize a Japan-exclusive entry in the series decades after its initial release.
